With Apologies to Ulyssies and my good friend, Lord Tennyson
(Adapted by Baron d'Rossveile)
I will drink life to the lees: All times
I have enjoy'd greatly, have suffer'd greatly
Both with those that have lov'd me, and alone.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch where gleams
That untravel'd world. How dull it is to pause,
To make an end, to rust unburnish'd,
Not to shine in use! As tho' to breathe were life!
Life piled on life were all too little; and of one to me
Little remains, yet this dull spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bounds of human thought.
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closeth all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note may yet be done.
We are not now that strength that in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
I happen to agree with you, Baron; You've "hit the nail on the head", And for a moment there, as I was reading this inspiring adaptation, I felt its concept deep in my soul. Memorial Day is approaching, and it's time to remember all the young men who gave their
lives never to follow knowledge--nor anything else. Our newspaper has a section called "Community Affairs", and on the front page today was the headline in very large print,
"Memorial Day Celebration". Celebration? Who was the idiot who thought that up?
Anyway, getting on with bumps in the road, I now have a great grandson with another on the front burner, and I cannot help but feel guilty about those who fought and died and who will never enjoy that experience as I have. No. Memorial Day definitely is not a celebration.
Dear Baron, I'm sure your friends and therapists have told you a million times that there's such a thing as "Survivor Guilt." I'm not a professional, but I'd say that the best memorial to your fallen colleagues is, as the poet says, to live your life as they would have wanted to live theirs: fully, and without being overwhelmed by the past.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do agree that "celebration" is an inappropriate word, although courage and endurance and fortitude are qualities that can be celebrated. I don't think I've seen the word used over here, but things seem to flow across the Atlantic like the Gulf Stream...
...Yours, but scanning the west coast of the British Isles carefully....Cuzzin Ruth